ON DISPLAY

arts & culture | On Display

On Display | arts & culture

PUTTING TALENT ON TAPE Story Mark Shaffer | Photography MacLean James, Shane M. Finster Musicians highlighted in ongoing Press Room Recordings

While 2020 and 2021 has largely shuttered the live music experience for bands and fans, Press Room Recordings has continued filming musicians to be broadcast across the area.

The Ironton Tribune has partnered with Armstrong Cable since the first episode was filmed in March 2019 to promote the Ironton-based music festival Ohio River Revival by showcasing bands slated to perform.

The premise of Press Room Recordings is simple enough, a band sets up and plays a live half hour of their own compositions next to the presses that print The Ironton Tribune and three other local newspapers as a crew from Armstrong tapes them for future broadcast.

Shane Finster, the community marketing manager for Armstrong and the producer of Press Room Recordings, said as a life-long music fanatic, had wanted to produce a music show after he joined Armstrong in 2016 and found out that they had their own television channel.

He began working with Doug Morris, Armstrong Neighborhood Channel Local Programming Producer and now Press Room Recordings director and video production, and pitched the idea of some type of music series.

The idea really hit in 2019 when Finster was at a business luncheon and came into contact with Sarah Simmons, The Ironton Tribune’s general manager. He mentioned that he had seen an article in the newspaper about the Ohio River Revival and asked if she knew who was in charge of the music festival.

“She said yes and asked why. I said we wanted to film some of the acts and could we set that up,” Finster explained. They later met at the newspaper office and hashed out a way to film some of the festival’s acts.

“It was initially touted as ‘Bluegrass Sessions,’ it evolved

arts & culture | On Display

On Display | arts & culture

into Press Room Recordings after Sarah agreed to allow us to shoot at The Tribune in the press room,” he said. “So, we kicked it off with a variety of bluegrass acts and since then it has evolved into all genres or genre-bending acts that cross traditional boundaries of what you would typically think of for a band.”

He said they have filmed all types of bands and solo artists that played postgrunge to bluegrass to country to folk to punk to traditional rock acts to “some acts that defy categorization.”

The name for the program comes, of course, from the unique setting that the bands play in.

“The Tribune is one of the few newspapers in the area that still has a press in-house and we’re proud of that,” Simmons said. “It was a chance to one, promote these bands and all they are doing in the area and two, take viewers ‘backstage’ of our own production.”

Finster said he likes how the space looks on television.

“It’s rather novel, it presents a look you don’t see on other shows,” he said. “Other music series are performed on a traditional stage with traditional lighting and mic arrangement, but this is a novel backdrop.”

Finster said that the bands and the fans love the sound the acts get in the industrial setting.

“It has acoustic properties you can’t even get on a traditional soundstage. It gives you a very live feel,” he said. “Many, many artists that have come on the show, their first impression is how good it really sounds in here.”

The videos are shown on Armstrong Cable’s channel 100 at 11:30 a.m. and

11:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on The Ironton Tribune’s Facebook page. The entire catalog of musical performances is also on YouTube under Armstrong Neighborhood Channel’s Press Room Recordings. It also has its own Facebook page, Press Room Recordings.

They have just finished filming season two of Press Room Recordings and will have 23-26 episodes.

“We will likely not take much of a hiatus before we roll into season three,” Finster said.

And Press Room Recordings has been recognized nationally.

Last fall, the series became an award winner after taking home two top trophies from the 41st annual Telly Awards, which honors excellence in video and television networks. There were 12,000 entries from America and five continents. Armstrong brought home a first and second place trophy.

“Last year, we took Armstrong’s first ever gold Telly award,” Finster said, adding that the award is presented to only five percent of the winning entries. “So, in our first ever submission we won gold and silver. We have submitted entries again this year and are hoping for the same performance, if not better this year. We would like to bring home two gold trophies.”

Artists or bands that are interested in being a part of Press Room Recordings can contact The Ironton Tribune Artist Ambassador MacLean James at maclean.james@ irontontribune.com for consideration. a

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